This invention relates generally to dispenser units for boxed goods, and in particular to a compact, multi-channel dispenser unit of high capacity, formed of thermoplastic material and created from a flat blank that is thermally folded to assume the desired form.
In the merchandising of candy, drugs and other products contained in small boxes, it is desirable that the product be attractively displayed in order to draw customers. The display on the counter of a single box is not feasible, for then the box is obscured by many other competing products. Moreover, when the product is advertised by a counter display card, but the supply of boxes is at another location, then should a customer seek to make a purchase, the sales person must leave the counter to find the supply and take a box therefrom, thereby complicating the transaction.
In order to provide dispensers which act both to store and display small containers of merchandise, it is known to provide units for this purpose which may be suspended from a wall or placed on the counter to attract customers and to facilitate purchases.
In the prior U.S. Pat. Nos. to Palamara 3,957,174 and Immordino, 3,993,196, there are disclosed box-dispensing units, each constituted by a frame whose side walls are provided with inwardly-projecting ridges that divide the frame interior into channels for accommodating the boxes to be stored, the front and rear edges of the side walls being bridged by upper and lower cross slats.
Box dispensing units of the type disclosed in the Palamara and Immordino patents are used in large quantities, and in order to mass-produce these units at low cost, they are injection-molded. An injection mold consists of two major parts, one stationary and the other movable. The stationary part is secured to the stationary platen of the machine and, in operation, directly contracts the nozzle of the injection cylinder. The movable part is attached to the movable platen of the machine and houses the ejector mechanism.
If the configuration of the plastic part to be molded is such that it is free of undercuts, then the part can be fully developed by the mold cavities and the part can be molded in a one-piece operation so that the part ejected from the mold is finished and ready to use. Otherwise, when there are undercuts, the complete structure can only be made by molding two or more pieces and thereafter assembling the pieces by secondary operation to complete the unit.
In order to avoid undercuts and make possible a one-piece molding operation, the Palamara patent discloses a relatively complex dispenser unit configuration in which the ledges projecting from the side walls of the frame are of progressively increasing width and have slots so formed therein that undercuts are absent. The practical difficulty with the Palamara structure, apart from its complexity, is that it dictates an elaborate and costly mold design.